RIO DE RANEIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- As a 41-year-old woman, Oksana Chusovitina from Uzbekistan still enjoys the gymnastic competitions and even eyes the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which would be her eighth Games.
Finishing seventh in the vault final at Rio 2016 on Sunday, Chusovitina received a message from her teenage son.
"He said he was proud of me," said Chusovitina, who kept extending her career for her son and for herself.
"I just love this sport. I still like to train and compete. That's why I still go on. My biggest goal in this competition is to make it to the vault final," said Chusovitina after training at Rio Olympic Arena last Thursday.
Competing with the young girls didn't bother her and she did manage to qualify for the vault final as the fifth qualifier.
"If they gave a few more marks for age, it would have been great. Otherwise, we're all equal and we just have to compete with each other as equals," she said.
Chusovitina said she felt great after the final and her body didn't feel any pain.
She decided to try to continue her career as a gymnast for another four years until the Tokyo Olympics, but she hadn't told her decision to her son.
"He hasn't known yet that I'm going to compete," said Chusovitina. "He would be disappointed."
"He always says, 'Mom, don't do complicate things. Be careful. Don't jump. Sleep well'."
However, Chusovitina felt that she was both mentally and physically fit for competing. In the final on Sunday, she even managed to do a routine with the highest difficulty score of 7.0 points.
"In general, I like to try new things so that's why I decided to try the vault," she said.
